Matthew Singer

Space may be the final frontier, but filmmakers have been dreaming of it ever since the medium was invented. Indeed, even after humans made it there, cinema’s obsession with the universe beyond our small rock hasn’t abated.  It’s not hard to understand why. Its infinite vastness is essentially a blank canvas on which to ponder all sorts of big ideas, whether it’s mankind’s place in the void, the human desire for exploration or the simple fear of the ultimate unknown. That’s why the ‘space movie’ deserves to be considered its own genre. Yes, many science-fiction movies are set in space. But not all movies about space are necessarily science fiction. Here are our picks for the 30 best movies that travel to infinity… and in many cases, beyond.   Recommended: 👽 The 100 best science fiction movies of all-time😬 The 100 best thriller films of all-time💣 The 101 best action movies ever made🦄 The 50 best fantasy movies of all-time 

It’s often said that Tom Cruise is the last true movie star, and to this point, no one’s really challenging him for the title. Now in his sixties, he’s four decades into one of Hollywood’s most bankable names. Sure, there have been ups and downs, in his career and personal life. But every time it seems like his profile is dimming, he goes and scales a skyscraper, jumps out of a plane and saves the movie industry, and he leaps right back into the good graces of both the public and casting directors. At this point, the guy’s done it all, from big-budget popcorn flicks to intense character studies to prestige dramas and a handful of comedies, though over the last decade plus, he’s mostly become known as a death-defying action star. With the massively popular Mission: Impossible franchise seemingly wrapping up, though, Cruise seems to be entering a new phase of his career. Will he get serious about possibly taking home an elusive Oscar or look for another bridge to leap off? That remains to be seen. For now, we’ve decided to celebrate what we have seen, by ranking his 24 best roles to date.

Halfway through 2025, Hollywood must be breathing a sigh of relief. At this point last year, the studios were scratching their heads at several major unexpected flops, and many analysts were left to wonder if the post-pandemic bounce-back of 2023 was simply an outlier. Now, with films like A Minecraft Movie, Sinners, Final Destination: Bloodlines and Lilo & Stitch outperforming expectations, it might be safe to say that the movies are finally, really, truly… back? Maybe we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. But there are reasons for cinephiles to celebrate beyond the industry’s financial health, whether it’s the blockbuster success of the aforementioned Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s ambitious and wholly original horror epic, or several smaller-scale achievements, from the formal invention of Nickel Boys to the animated underdog (undercat?) story of Flow to a pair of home runs from Steven Soderbergh. And there’s plenty more to come. Here are the films that have had us cheering loudest in 2025 so far.  RECOMMENDED: 📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far)🔥 The best horror movies of 2025🎥 The 101 greatest films ever made

Over the last decade and a half or so, it’s often seemed like comic book movies are the only movies being made anymore. And while it always made sense from a mega-studio business perspective, for a lot of film fans, that level of oversaturation (from both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe) has bred exhaustion and more than a little cynicism.  Let’s not paint with a broad ink pen here, though. Sure, those that have dominated the box office in recent years have frequently involved high-powered superheroes saving the world from the latest mega-villain. But ‘comic book movie’ and ‘superhero movie’ aren’t always synonymous. Some deal with complex, real-world issues and emotions, with nary a cape in sight. Others use superhero mythology as a jumping off point for looking for the problems that plague modern society – or simply deconstruct that mythology all together. Here are 50 of the best, representing all corners of the comic-verse, as selected by Time Out writers – with an assist from a guy who has made a great one himself, director Edgar Wright. Written by Tom Huddleston, Adam Lee Davies, Paul Fairclough, David Jenkins, Andy P. Kryza, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer  Recommended: 🦸 All the Marvel movies ranked from worst to best🦄 The 50 best fantasy movies of all-time💣 The best action movies of all-time✍ The 100 best animated movies of all-time

The ’90s were a great time to be a kid for many reasons, not the least being the kind of movies we could watch. It truly felt like Hollywood was catering directly to the youth, between the Disney renaissance, the rise of Pixar, coming-of-age comedies like The Sandlot, the golden age of Tim Burton and Robin Williams at his peak. Did young millennials spend a tad too much time in front of the VCR? Perhaps. But hey, look at us now! We’re all the better for it. And thanks to streaming, you can share the bounty of timeless entertainment with your own children – or just engage in some healthy nostalgia. In either case, here are the 20 movies you should fire up immediately. Recommended: 👪 The best family movies of all-time🎮 The 50 best ‘90s movies📺 The 35 best ‘90s TV shows🎸The 50 best ‘90s songs

Introducing kids to scary movies is a big gamble. Choose the right movie, and you’ve got a burgeoning horror fanatic who’ll spend every night in October letting you bust out all your frightening favorites with wide-eyed enthusiasm. Go too scary off the bat, and be prepared to hear a lot of screams emanating from their bedroom in the middle of the night.  To assist you in helping your sweet angel turn to the dark side of cinema, we’ve collected some of the best lightly spooky fare for all ages. There are few truly bloodthirsty monsters or serial killers here, but there are enough scares to delight the older members of the brood while not totally freaking out the smallest ones. Make sure there’s a fresh bulb for the nightlight handy, though. Recommended: 🎃 The best Halloween movies of all-time👻 The best Halloween movies for kids of all-ages👪 The 50 best family films to stream on movie night

If there’s one thing all kids love – apart from candy – it’s cute animals. Any adult who needs a breather can just put on a webcam of some baby ducks at a petting zoo and be guaranteed at least a few moments of peace. But if you’re actually looking to spend some bonding time with the wee one, a movie starring a furry, scaly, sometimes smooth and wet friend will keep you both enraptured. Here, we’ve rounded up the best movies in which an animal factors heavily into the story. Some are animated, others are real. All of them are adorable, and sure to get two paws (or fins) up from the little beasts in your house. Recommended: 🐭 The 50 best Disney movies for family night👪 The 50 best family films to stream on movie night🤣 The 35 best family comedy movies

No specific battle in the history of warfare has occupied filmmakers’ imagination like D-Day. On June 6, 1944, Allied Forces stormed the beaches of Normandy on the French coast, launching the invasion of Western Europe. Hollywood has since spent the equivalent GDP of many small countries attempting to restage the battle on camera, to either commemorate a major historical event, celebrate individual acts of heroism or reflect the horrors of warfare at its most broadly chaotic. Here are the six films that, in one way or another, pay greatest tribute to the moment. Recommended: 🪖 The 50 best World War II movies🎖 The 50 best war movies of all-time🌍 The 21 best World War I movies of all-time🇻🇳 The 20 best Vietnam War movies

Streaming is hard. That seems like a misnomer, given that practically every movie you could ever want to watch is now a few clicks away. But that’s the issue: knowing precisely what’s out there, and where to find it, can become overwhelming. Here, we’re doing the hard work for you, by cutting through the clutter and getting straight to the best movies available to watch right now – not just at home, but in theaters as well. We will update this guide regularly, so you can always find something to watch. Here’s the latest and greatest available right now. What to Watch Now In Cinemas and Theaters New on Netflix New on Hulu New on HBO and Max New on Peacock New on Paramount+ New on Disney+ New on Prime Video New on Apple TV+ Action Movies Streaming Now Comedy Movies Streaming Now Sci-Fi & Fantasy Movies Streaming Now Horror Movies Streaming Now Date Night Movies Streaming Now Family Movies Streaming Now

In just a few years, Apple TV+ has amassed a decent selection of original movies, but where it’s really excelled is television. Since launching in late 2019, the streaming service has produced several shows and miniseries that could be deemed phenomenons, including Ted Lasso, Severance and Slow Horses. Narrowing down what it does best can be difficult, though: in just those aforementioned highlights, you’ll find a heartwarming comedy, a sci-fi mystery and a spy thriller. In truth, the platform is simply loaded with highly bingeable content spread across several genres and formats. And with buzzy series like The Studio, Lucky and Murderbot on the way, the slate is just getting more crowded. So what’s the most deserving of your precious time? Here are 20 of our current favourites. Recommended: 🍏 The 25 best movies to watch on Apple TV+🗓 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far)📺 The 101 best TV shows of all-time

For a long time, the 1980s were considered a bad time for movies. Coming out of the ’70s New Hollywood revolution, mainstream films got bigger, louder and more violent, and the entire vibe of the era felt superficial and plastic. Looking back now, though, it’s easier to see how important and influential the period was. It was a time when the most popular movies were also among the best, and when the celebrated auteurs of the previous decade – your David Lynches, your Martin Scorseses - refined their approaches and did some of their most iconic work. The independent scene that exploded in the ’90s began to rumble, as did international cinema.  In retrospect, if it wasn’t the absolutely greatest movie decade, the ‘80s may have been the most unique, and these 50 films represent the best of the era. These are the movies any cinephile worth their salted popcorn must see – ideally on a VHS tape with tracking issues, but streaming is fine, too. Written by Joshua Rothkopf, Tom Huddleston, Dave Calhoun, Andy Kryza, Cath Clarke, Matthew Singer & Phil de Semlyen Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🎘  The 50 best songs from ‘80s movies💣 The 101 best action movies of all-time💀 The 100 best horror movies of all-time

When it comes to sex, the movies are currently going through a bit of a dry spell. Sure, recent movies like Challengers and Babygirl had some hot-and-horny moments, but it feels like it’s been a long while since we’ve seen a truly steamy, taboo-shattering roll in the hay – or hot tub, or midsize sedan, or literal bay of hale – in a major studio film. Is it because of society’s general rightward shift recently? Or did filmmakers start listening to those misguided social media debates about the merits of the sex scene? In any case, it’s far past time the movies got back to getting it on. Yes, in some cases, sex scenes can seem pointless. In the best examples of cinematic boffing, though, sex tells stories. It develops characters. Sometimes it’s a punchline, sometimes it’s terrifying. Sometimes, yes, it’s simply meant to arouse – but titillation has value, too. So pour yourself some wine and slip into something a little more comfortable: here are the 101 best sex scenes of all-time. Written by Dave Calhoun, Joshua Rothkopf, Cath Clarke, David Ehrlich, Phil de Semlyen, Daniel Walber, Trevor Johnston, Andy Kryza, Daniel Walber and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🕯️ The steamiest erotic thrillers ever made🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time❤ The 100 best romantic films of all-time😬 The 50 most controversial movies ever made💪 The 100 best feminist films of all-time

Summer is officially here, but don’t run out and touch grass. Netflix is giving you plenty of excuses to stay planted on the couch, where it’s nice and air conditioned. Well, a few excuses, anyway: June is frankly not the most exciting month on the streamer, with the only notable new movie being a thriller from Tyler Perry. But there are quite a few fresh TV seasons to binge, including the third season of Ginny & Georgia, another round of the Shane Gillis workplace comedy Tires and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s FUBAR, the debut of the potential next big feuding-family drama in The Waterfront and the final instalment of one of the biggest Netflix shows of all-time, Squid Game. So grab a margarita, fill up that kiddie pool in the living room, and kick off summer the proper way: in front of the television. Recommended: 💻 The best Netflix original series to binge📺 The best TV and streaming shows of 2025 (so far) Ginny & Georgia season 3 At the end of the second season of this emotional family dramedy, single mother Georgia Miller (Brianne Howey) was arrested for murder in the middle of her own wedding reception. Where does that leave her already troubled daughter (Antonia Gentry)? Let’s find out! Premieres June 5 Tires season 2 Getting kicked off Saturday Night Live is the best thing that could have happened to comedian Shane Gillis, as the manosphere favourite now has a higher profile than most current cast members, and his own show to boot. Set in an auto garage, this w

Gentlemen, rev your Aston Martins and start shaking those martinis, because a new James Bond is on the horizon. Menthol smoke has not yet started billowing out of MGM Studios – the traditional indication that the next 007 has been chosen – with Daniel Craig’s likely replacement still a mystery. What does this mean for the future of the iconic British spy series and its upcoming 26th instalment? Information is limited, but here’s what we know so far.  What does Amazon MGM Studios’ takeover mean for the next James Bond? After months of rumour and speculation, James Bond finally got a new boss in February 2025. Not M, but Amazon MGM Studios who sealed a deal with 007’s producers, Eon’s Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, to take creative control of the franchise.  Broccoli and Wilson will remain co-owners of James Bond but crucially, will step back from controlling the future direction or execution of the franchise. ‘With the conclusion of No Time to Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects,’ Broccoli said in a statement.So what does it all mean for 007? We’re probably a step closer to a release date for Bond 26 and the announcement of a new James Bond to star in it. Maybe a radical change of direction for the whole franchise, too, with immediate speculation that Amazon will look to spin their expensive new IP into the kind of shared universe storytelling that Disney pursued with Lucasfilm and Star Wars after its takeover. Is a

Mike White’s HBO sensation The White Lotus is back and not since Chevy Chase’s ’80s heyday have vacations gone wrong quite this spectacularly.Second 3 sees another party of unsuspecting but largely fairly deserving wealthies disembarking for a week or so of passive-aggression, skullduggery, and in the odd case, death. Friendships will fray, cobras will be unleashed and uptight westerners will unravel in the serene surrounds of a Thai resort. And we’ll all be there every step of the way. As with previous seasons the location is the story. This time White is taking us further east: to Thailand and a White Lotus resort where devices must be popped in a bag and the healing power of spiritual therapy allowed to do its thing. Season 1 took us to Hawaii, season 2 introduced the Sicilian White Lotus. Now it’s time for a tour of White Lotus Thailand and its ultra-luxe locations. Photograph: Fabio Lovino/HBO(Left to right) Christian Friedel, Carrie Coon, Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb and Lek Patravadi in season 3 of ‘The White Lotus’ Where is White Lotus season 3 filmed? The third season takes its cast – Michelle Monaghan, Parker Posey, Carrie Coon, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jason Isaacs, Cate Le Bon et al – to The White Lotus Resort in Thailand. According to Mike White, it was nearly set in another a couple of thousand miles to the east. ‘Originally, [Thailand] was kind of a stalking horse because I wanted to shoot in Japan,’ says the showrunner. ‘I've spent more time there and I jus

The devastating wildfires that have been sweeping through suburbs of Los Angeles since Tuesday continue to threaten life and livelihoods across the city—as well as inflicting enormous destruction of property.     In a city famous as a headquarters for film and TV production, the impact has been devastating, with celebrity enclaves like Malibu and Pacific Palisades hit especially hard by the blaze. Studios have been evacuated, and TV productions and award season events deferred. Here’s what it all means for the world of pop culture and moviemaking. 1. Are L.A.’s cinemas and studios threatened by the wildfires?  As the Sunset Fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday evening, the TCL Chinese Theatre—popularly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre—and the current home of the Oscars, the Dolby Theatre, were included in the evacuation zone. The blaze was largely extinguished overnight, however, and the evacuation warning lifted.   The L.A. premieres for Pamela Anderson’s award-nominated The Last Showgirl, Unstoppable, Wolf Man and the long-awaited second season of Apple TV+’s Severance were called off. Even a New York premiere—of Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz’s Netflix action-comedy Back in Action—was cancelled too. Meanwhile, popular studio attractions were also closed during the week, due to the proximity of the fires. Universal Studios closed its gates to the public on Wednesday, before reopening today. Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal CityWalk will be

Well, here we are. America has arrived at the moment of truth – the most important presidential election in our lifetime. Sure, they seem to say that about every election, but in this case, it’s probably true, given that democracy itself is seemingly hanging in the balance. Whether or not the results actually end up confirming the country’s slide into totalitarianism, it’s a big deal regardless.   Need to prepare yourself? These movies should help put things in perspective. Not all of them are about presidential politics per se, but they are focused on the democratic process and the machinations and maneuverings that accompany it. We’d like to say they’ll calm your inevitably frazzled nerves, but the truth is, if you’re making a movie about an election in the United States, it’s probably lined with a good bit of cynicism. But as you’ll see, cynicism can be a good thing, especially if you’re hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time😬 The best thriller movies of all-time🤔 The 24 best movies based on true stories Photograph: Warner Bros. 1. All the President’s Men (1976) Ah, the days when committing crimes could actually bring down a presidency. Watergate was barely out of the headlines when Alan Pakula turned the most famous act of reportage in American political history into the greatest journalism procedural ever made. Embellishing little, Pakula sticks to the facts – and to the newsroom of The Washington Post – and

Horror, fittingly, is the unkillable genre. Just when you think it’s peaked – the exploitation-heavy ’70s, the slasher ’80s, the post-ironic ’90s – it gets a new leash of life and lurches back at you, claw hammer in hand. Like the transmogrifying alien in The Thing, there’s something in its bloodstream that keeps its scares relevant, keeps them reflecting our fears back at us in ways that are too damn frightening to resist. Halloween, however, requires a very specific kind of horror film: it’s a time when spooks and scares, ghosts and ghouls take precedence over subtext and smarts. With that, and the genre’s recent purple patch in mind, here’s a few films from the last year or two that will scare you witless this week and enhance that gothic vibe. (If you’ve got younger viewers in the house, give this more family-friendly list a go instead.) Our pick of the top Halloween movies for 2024 Photograph: A24 1. Heretic Hands up: who had Hugh Grant down as this year’s answer to the Jigsaw Killer? The erstwhile romcom softboi shows new, darker shades in a fiendishly clever horror-thriller with big ideas and even bigger shocks. It’s not Grant’s first villainous turn – hello, Daniel Cleaver and that cannibal in Cloud Atlas – but when his seemingly hospitable would-be convert lulls a pair of guileless Mormon missionaries into a hellish labyrinthine, it’s a ride you really don’t want to miss. In theaters now Photograph: Signature Entertainment 2. Terrifier 3 Who knew there was such

You’ve carved a pumpkin – looks great, top work – you’ve stocked up on candy and decked out the front porch like it’s the set of a Tim Burton movie. But there may be one variable still lingering over your Halloween: what to watch with the little ones? What’s needed is something that offers kids a frisson of spookiness and some gentle scares, but nothing that’s going to freak them out and require you to spend three hours sitting by their bedside reassuring them that Pazuzu isn’t real. Oh, and something that’s genuinely fun for grown-ups too. Here’s our pick of ten Halloween faves that hit that ghoulish sweet spot. (Oh, and grown-ups should head for this more R-rated list.) The top Halloween movies for kids Photograph: Disney 1. Coco (Disney+) Give your Halloween a celebratory vibe with an effervescent Pixar animation that sends its young musical hero into the afterlife for a race-against-the-clock adventure featuring skeletons as far as the eyeball can see. No culture does death with as much vibrancy and joy as Mexico, and this riff on the Day of the Dead celebrations is a suitably kaleidoscopic treatment of the great beyond. The actual Día de Muerto falls on Saturday, November 2, so what better time to cue it up? Photograph: Disney+Frankenweenie 2. Frankenweenie (Disney+) Nothing’s worse than the loss of a beloved family pet. Enter Tim Burton’s stop motion animation to raise the spooky possibility of reincarnating the little guy with the help of a massive electrical cha

On Netflix, movies and TV shows come and go almost daily. Sometimes, you may not even know something is there to stream before it’s too late. In other cases, you might be halfway through a series, or planning to watch a movie at the end of the week, and then poof: gone. Don’t get caught unaware. Below, you’ll find a full list of everything leaving Netflix in November 2024, with our six picks for the flicks you must watch before they cycle off, including Tom Hanks as a grumpy old man, Tom Cruise as a live-action video game character, Ryan Gosling as a real American hero, and Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah. Get watching, and live without regret. Recommended: 🎬 The 35 best movies on Netflix right now🇳 The 44 best Netflix original series to binge🦚 The 20 best movies to watch on Peacock right now🎥 The 25 best movies on HBO and Max right now Photograph: Dennis Mong/Sony Pictures A Man Called Otto Tom Hanks plays against type as a gravelly-voiced old grouch who just wants to be left alone long enough to hang himself and join his wife in the afterlife. Of course, his meddling neighbours won’t allow that to happen, and the movie becomes just the sort of hard-to-resist heartstring-tugger you expect to see Tom Hanks in.  Leaves Nov 5   Photograph: Warner Bros."Edge of Tomorrow" Edge of Tomorrow ‘Starship Troopers meets Groundhog Day’ is the easiest pitch for this entertaining sci-fi blockbuster. Tom Cruise is a post-apocalyptic bureaucrat conscripted to fight against the alien hord

Sports are the pinnacle of human drama, and the Olympics are the peak of sporting events. Logically, then, movies about the Olympics are some of the most stirring, thrilling and plainly inspirational you’ll find. We’re not saying they’re the best sports movies necessarily – we’ve got a whole other list for that – but when it comes to whipping viewers into a patriotic froth, the best films about the global games do it better than almost anything else. Of course, there is a dark side to the Olympics, both socially and historically, as reflected in top-shelf movies like Munich and Foxcatcher. But for the sake of this list, and stoking excitement for the upcoming Paris games, we’re sticking with the thrilling, the soul-stirring and the inspirational movies to tackle the Olympics – in both their summer and snowier guises. Here are nine of our favourites. Recommended: ⚾ The 50 best sports movies of all-time🥊 The 10 best boxing movies of all-time📹 The 66 best documentaries of all-time Zátopek (2021) Every country has its Olympics heroes. In the Czech Republic it’s Emil Zátopek, a long-distance runner who defied the odds to win triple gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. As charted in this stirring and colourful biopic, Zátopek (Václav Neužil) had the kind of mischievous eccentricity and drive you probably need to run endlessly in giant loops – and a romantic spirit that manifests in a touching romance with Dana, a champion javelin thrower. Well worth, ahem, tracking do

Rejoice, film fans – August is over! The end of summer is famously regarded as an end-of-summer dumping ground for major studios, and this year seemed particularly dismal. But with September comes slightly cooler temperatures and definitively movies as award season begins in earnest. This month’s slate is light on blockbusters or marquee releases but contains several smaller affairs you may end up hearing about come Oscar time, including Celine Song’s quietly heartbreaking modern romance ‘Past Lives’, the intensely intimate ‘Passages’ and Pedro Almodovar’s Pedro Pascal-and-Ethan Hawke-starring ‘queer Western’, Strange ‘Way of Life’. And hey, if you just want to see Denzel Washington shoot some bad guys, there’s always ‘The Equalizer 3’!     Photograph: MUBI Passages A long-tenured French couple (Franz Rogowski and Ben Whishaw) have their relationship thrown into chaos when the former has an affair with a younger woman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) in this typically small-yet-intense drama from director Ira Sachs. Having previously set his films in New York, Sachs utilises the Parisian backdrop to such a degree it becomes a character unto itself.  In cinemas Sep 1  Foto: Cortesía Konnichiwa Festival The First Slam Dunk Basketball anime style, Takehiko Inoue’s adaptation of his own mega-selling manga series ‘Slam Dunk’ is 20 years in the making and currently smashing box-office records in Japan and South Korea. It arrives on these shores as the fifth highest grossing anime e

Already a smash hit in the US, all eight episodes of ‘The Bear’ have finally arrived on Disney+ in the UK and Ireland. The FX dramedy, set in the kitchen of a blue-collar Chicago sandwich shop and starring the about-to-be-huge Jeremy Allen White, has generated a tonne of buzz since its first dropped on Hulu across the Pond.Created by Christopher Storer, it centres on an up-and-coming chef who inherits his family’s struggling greasy spoon following the sudden death of his brother. It’s earned critical raves for its breakout cast and sharply observed writing, which manages to convey a lot about grief and masculinity despite dealing with some not particularly articulate characters. And it’s already been renewed for a second season. So if you want to keep up with the zeitgeist, you’ll probably want to jump in as soon as it lands on the streamer. And if you’re wondering if it’s worth the four-hour investment, here are the five best reasons to watch. Photograph: Matt Dinerstein/FXWhite with Liza Colon-Zayas as Tina 1. Jeremy Allen White is basically a young Nicolas Cage First and foremost, ‘The Bear’ heralds the arrival of Jeremy Allen White. Okay, perhaps that’s a weird thing to say, given that he just wrapped up a ten-year stint as a lead on the US version of Shameless. But in his first true star vehicle, White shines as Carmen ‘Carmy’ Bezatto, aka Bear, a hot-shit young chef with hypnotic eyes and a wounded demeanour. White spent two weeks in culinary school to prepare for the

Damien Chazelle is returning to La La Land… But the director’s new movie is about a much different Los Angeles than that of his 2016 musical. In his upcoming Babylon, the 37-year-old filmmaker travels back to the Golden Age of Hollywood, a particularly grand and debauched time in the entertainment industry. It’s Chazelle’s first movie since 2018’s Neil Armstrong biopic First Man and the first he’s written since La La Land made him the youngest Best Director winner in Oscar history. And according to Chazelle, it’s his most ambitious project yet. ‘It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve done,’ he tells Vanity Fair. ‘Just the logistics of it, the number of characters, the scale of the set pieces, the span of time that the movie charts – it all conspired to make it particularly challenging, but it was a challenge that was pretty exciting to take on.’ Chazelle says he’s had the idea for Babylon in his head since even before his breakthrough film, 2014’s Whiplash, but didn’t yet have the clout to do something so ‘massive’. He finally started working on the script in 2018, but then the pandemic stalled production. After screening teaser footage for a convention audience earlier this year, Babylon is finally nearing release – and it looks like another Oscar contender. Here’s everything we know about Babylon.   Photo Credit: Scott Garfield| Margot Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy in Babylon from Paramount Pictures. When does Babylon come out? It hits theatres in select US cities on Decemb